A series of explosions in the skies of Russia’s Urals region, reportedly caused by a meteorite shower, has sparked panic in three major cities. Witnesses said that houses shuddered, windows were blown out and cellphones have stopped working.

According to unconfirmed reports, the meteorite was intercepted by an air defense unit at the Urzhumka settlement near Chelyabinsk. A missile salvo reportedly blew the meteorite to pieces at an altitude of 20 kilometers.

Could the fly by of asteroid DA14, cause the meteorite crash in, Russia??

It's been discussed recently that the asteroid 2012 DA14 is passing so close that it may be broken up into pieces by Earth's gravity. It was claimed that the pieces would continue on the same Earth-avoiding trajectory as before, but now I wonder...

Too early in the day, DA14 isn't due until about 17:00UTC. These reports are at about 03:20UTC, so its "one we missed".
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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Too early in the day, DA14 isn't due until about 17:00UTC. These reports are at about 03:20UTC, so its "one we missed".

I'm sure one of millions we missed. If they are perhaps related their orbits will be nearly identical. With all the video of it, I'm sure a preliminary orbit will be calculated and then we will know for sure.

Best sad laugh of the day was a CNN anchor asking their "science" expert if the meteor was the result of global warming.

And the expert did not point out the error in her question / logic.

There is enough wrong with the world that is our fault without people trying to make mankind to blame for every little thing that goes wrong. That's what we have God and the Devil for.
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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

I doubt it was 500 kilotons of TNT. There would have been much more dire consequences. Figure it out : one gram of TNT equals one Calorie or about 4.185 joules. figure 1/2 mv^2 for the meteor at 30,000 miles per hour and a specific gravity of say, 3.5 --or use their estimate of 10,000 tons if it makes sense. Sounds too heavy to me.

Bear in mind, though, that most of that energy is believed to have been released at an altitude of about 15 miles. The shock waves were apparently attenuated as they spread out in all directions, over that distance. The Earth's atmosphere seems to have absorbed much of the energy.

I wonder what the damage would have been had it been on a perpendicular trajectory and plunged straight down through the atmosphere. I also wonder if it was a companion to the larger asteroid that missed all together.

I also wonder if Apophis might have some sizable travelling companions that could do damage in 2029?
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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

The trajectories of the Russian meteorite and the asteroid 2012 DA14 appear to have been very different. The lack of common motion seems to rule out any connection between them. There does not seem to be any evidence of of the asteroid Apophis having a moon, though, of course some asteroids do. At only ~325 meters diameter it probably couldn't capture or hold a very sizable one with its gravity.

It is nearly impossible to get a vertical trajectory impacting impactor from space. However, years ago there was a model that allowed you to simulate the impact of various sized objects at various angles onto the surface. From memory for a given object a very high angle impact (closer to 90deg) gave a smaller, but more intense damage field than a lower angle impact, I also recall that the maximum nett damage was at something in the region of 45deg impact as there was maximum forward splatter of material, and its was the splattered material that caused the damage.
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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?